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Most of you Dakka users living in the US probably have heard about the upcoming total solar eclipse that will occur on August 21. I thought I'd start a thread talking about it and when it happens we can post some pictures of it and stuff. I've been waiting for this thing to happen for over 20 years, having first heard about it when I was seven and my dad showed me an astronomy book with eclipses and stuff in it. I just happen to live right smack in the middle of the path of totality (as I did back then), so I don't even have to travel to see it. It's going to be awesome, as it will be my first time seeing one of these in person.

For those of you from other nations, if you were thinking of visiting the US anytime soon, try to go somewhere in the path of totality if you can. It'll be worth it!

Oh, this is going to be fun. I'm flying out to watch it somewhere over SC (exact location TBD pending weather status), I'll get up about 10,000' or so and watch the shadow of the moon cross the landscape before totality hits.

I'm in the 80% coverage zone. So it'll be fairly dramatic where I am.

I sadly wont see it at all

Total eclipses are pretty rare because most of the time the shadow falls on the oceans.

We have one in the UK about 15 years ago. It was a great occasion. Everyone stopped working and the streets and rooftops were full of people watching it.

Everyone should take the opportunity to witness it if they can.

I'm in a 92% zone and plan to watch it. I really need to order some glasses.

 Ouze wrote:
I'm in a 92% zone and plan to watch it. I really need to order some glasses.

Do it now. I just had to pay $90 to get a pack of two, and $45 of that was 2-day express shipping to get them here in time. And a lot of sellers are sold out until after the eclipse is over. If you don't order now you probably won't get them.

(Worth it though, and small compared to the ~$700 for the airplane rental.)

Timed my vacation to visit my folks in Kentucky for this. Going to drive down to the 100% zone to catch it in full. Hopefully the weather cooperates.

Good luck!

And if you get clear skies you can stay up late and watch the Perseids meteor shower tonight.

I was still living in the UK when they had one last, now I get to see this one too. Very exciting!

I am in a pretty good spot to see it, but I used to live in a 100% zone, I believe I will be heading down there for the weekend. They are having a nice celebration for it.

http://eclipse.siu.edu/

 Peregrine wrote:
Oh, this is going to be fun. I'm flying out to watch it somewhere over SC (exact location TBD pending weather status), I'll get up about 10,000' or so and watch the shadow of the moon cross the landscape before totality hits.

I don't know if you are gonna be able to do that during the fly, but maybe take some photos? Probably is gonna be something very beautifull.

 ZergSmasher wrote:
Most of you Dakka users living in the US probably have heard about the upcoming total solar eclipse that will occur on August 21. I thought I'd start a thread talking about it and when it happens we can post some pictures of it and stuff. I've been waiting for this thing to happen for over 20 years, having first heard about it when I was seven and my dad showed me an astronomy book with eclipses and stuff in it. I just happen to live right smack in the middle of the path of totality (as I did back then), so I don't even have to travel to see it. It's going to be awesome, as it will be my first time seeing one of these in person.

For those of you from other nations, if you were thinking of visiting the US anytime soon, try to go somewhere in the path of totality if you can. It'll be worth it!

GC and some others are driving to Missouri to get a better view.

Two horrific words peeps:
Cloud cover :(

For anyone in the STL area that needs glasses, Brewer's Truevalue in St Peters has them still for about 2 bucks a pop. I bought four.

 Peregrine wrote:

 Ouze wrote:
I'm in a 92% zone and plan to watch it. I really need to order some glasses.

Do it now. I just had to pay $90 to get a pack of two, and $45 of that was 2-day express shipping to get them here in time. And a lot of sellers are sold out until after the eclipse is over. If you don't order now you probably won't get them.

(Worth it though, and small compared to the ~$700 for the airplane rental.)

I finally got some, but they did cost $10 apiece - and yes, quite a few are totally sold out or on backorder until like, the 20th.

 daedalus wrote:
For anyone in the STL area that needs glasses, Brewer's Truevalue in St Peters has them still for about 2 bucks a pop. I bought four.

Careful. Lots of counterfeit glasses out there, especially for real cheap. Only use glasses made by a company that has the safety approval from NASA.

 Ratius wrote:
Two horrific words peeps:
Cloud cover :(

We had a partial one in the UK about two years ago and the cloud was so thick I couldn't even say where the sun was.

It's going to be a zoo in my neck of the woods, we're expecting a million visitors to the area and the worst traffic in history, I think where I am it'll be like 99.2% totality or something, with 40 or so miles south being 100%.

It's also supposed to be "party cloudy", so I'm expecting we'll see nothing

 Grey Templar wrote:

 daedalus wrote:
For anyone in the STL area that needs glasses, Brewer's Truevalue in St Peters has them still for about 2 bucks a pop. I bought four.

Careful. Lots of counterfeit glasses out there, especially for real cheap. Only use glasses made by a company that has the safety approval from NASA.

I think these are legit. They claim to be made by American Paper Optics and are ISO certified. From the "spot a counterfeit" page, they appear to be the real ones.

https://www.eclipseglasses.com/pages/safety

 Frazzled wrote:

 ZergSmasher wrote:
Most of you Dakka users living in the US probably have heard about the upcoming total solar eclipse that will occur on August 21. I thought I'd start a thread talking about it and when it happens we can post some pictures of it and stuff. I've been waiting for this thing to happen for over 20 years, having first heard about it when I was seven and my dad showed me an astronomy book with eclipses and stuff in it. I just happen to live right smack in the middle of the path of totality (as I did back then), so I don't even have to travel to see it. It's going to be awesome, as it will be my first time seeing one of these in person.

For those of you from other nations, if you were thinking of visiting the US anytime soon, try to go somewhere in the path of totality if you can. It'll be worth it!

GC and some others are driving to Missouri to get a better view.

WHere in MO?

It's passing right over us. Down day on base for it, should be a neat event.

 whembly wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:

 ZergSmasher wrote:
Most of you Dakka users living in the US probably have heard about the upcoming total solar eclipse that will occur on August 21. I thought I'd start a thread talking about it and when it happens we can post some pictures of it and stuff. I've been waiting for this thing to happen for over 20 years, having first heard about it when I was seven and my dad showed me an astronomy book with eclipses and stuff in it. I just happen to live right smack in the middle of the path of totality (as I did back then), so I don't even have to travel to see it. It's going to be awesome, as it will be my first time seeing one of these in person.

For those of you from other nations, if you were thinking of visiting the US anytime soon, try to go somewhere in the path of totality if you can. It'll be worth it!

GC and some others are driving to Missouri to get a better view.

WHere in MO?

all I know is it's a campground.

Yuuup. The wife and I planned a vacation to Kentucky to see the full eclipse years ago so next weekend we are taking the kids south to see it. Pretty damn stoaked

It sounds like it's going to be the kind of mosh I'll be happy to avoid since I'm not a crowds person. The roads through here are going to get nuts,though, if the predictions are accurate.

https://www.ksl.com/?sid=45369115&nid=148

 whembly wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:

 ZergSmasher wrote:
Most of you Dakka users living in the US probably have heard about the upcoming total solar eclipse that will occur on August 21. I thought I'd start a thread talking about it and when it happens we can post some pictures of it and stuff. I've been waiting for this thing to happen for over 20 years, having first heard about it when I was seven and my dad showed me an astronomy book with eclipses and stuff in it. I just happen to live right smack in the middle of the path of totality (as I did back then), so I don't even have to travel to see it. It's going to be awesome, as it will be my first time seeing one of these in person.

For those of you from other nations, if you were thinking of visiting the US anytime soon, try to go somewhere in the path of totality if you can. It'll be worth it!

GC and some others are driving to Missouri to get a better view.

WHere in MO?

I know I wasn't the one you were asking, but I'm in Columbia, where the eclipse will be total for about 2 1/2 minutes.

I'm in something like high 90's, it's maybe 40-60 minutes to Carbondale Illinois where they're smack in the center of the path. I'm on the bleeding edge of the north end of the expect strip.

Better secure glasses, feel a bit foolish for not having done so.

I'm in the ass-place to see this and no way to get anywhere good, so I'm indifferent to it.

However, the eclipse comes at almost exactly the time of my show's premier, which is not a good sign for our potential viewership. Good thing the client's already signed on for two seasons, but I doubt we're getting a third now (the show isn't very good to begin with).

Went out to Foley Park, south of Belleville, IL. Brought a small propane grill and cooked out with some friends. We had a pretty good time and I tried out the filter I built for my camera.

I don't normally image spam, but I figured I'd share:

 daedalus wrote:
Went out to Foley Park, south of Belleville, IL. Brought a small propane grill and cooked out with some friends. We had a pretty good time and I tried out the filter I built for my camera.

I don't normally image spam, but I figured I'd share:

Spoiler:

Very nice pics! I tried to take a selfie with the total eclipse in the background, but my potato iPod Touch camera just showed a light blob, so instead of trying to fiddle with that I decided to look at and enjoy the eclipse instead. Plenty of professionals and others with proper camera setups got photos so I can just enjoy their work.